MAP01: Basement Dwellers (Hardfest)

MAP01: Basement Dwellers is the first map of Hardfest. It was designed by finnks13 and uses the music track "Starcore", composed by Korp.

Essentials
This map can be considered semi-nonlinear, since both keys needed to progress can be approached from two sides.

Once the map starts and the player makes a sound, 43 zombiemen from an out-of-bounds monster closet will start teleporting into two dark rooms: one to the west of the spawn points and one connected to the west corridor.

First of all, find the blue keycard. It is located north-west of the spawn point, surrounded by demons. Pay attention to the mancubi and revenants on elevated platforms, as they can easily deal damage when you are distracted.

After you have gotten the blue key, go to the south part of the level. It can be accessed either by a stairway on the west (which is guarded by turret imps and chaingunners behind an impassable transparent wall), or using an elevator to the east. Find the blue arrow on the floor and press the blue switch it leads towards.

The switch opens two walls leading to the yellow keycard, and also two monster closets in the corridor with the trail of health bonuses. Go to the platform where the horde of sniping imps are located and pick up the rocket launcher before going for the yellow key. Picking up the key triggers an ambush. Demons and revenants teleport to the corridors connected to the platform, and cacodemons appear outside of it.

With the yellow key in hand, go to the westernmost part of the map and open the yellow bars. Press the switch to raise the elevator you are on. After waiting some time you will arrive at the final fight. Directly in front of you is an arch-vile surrounded by Hell knights. The rest of the area is filled with imps, demons and zombiemen, while you have two pillars to hide behind. After killing everything, press the switch located on the south side of the southern of the two pillars to raise a step, allowing you to climb to the exit switch. If you do so, but will not press the switch, you can notice that the elevator which you came from has lowered, allowing you to backtrack to the previous parts of the map in case you missed something.

Secrets

 * 1) In the upper room with a green armor and a soulsphere overlooking the starting area, look at the opposite end through the window. You will see a brown switch embedded in a wall above the platform with imps. Shoot that switch. Doing so will lower the nearby corner wall behind a singular barrel, revealing imps, chaingunners and a blue armor. (sector 132)

Current records
The records for the map at the Doom Speed Demo Archive are:

The data was last verified in its entirety on April 16, 2023.

Things
This level contains the following numbers of things per skill level:

Inspiration and development
According to the map comments, the main inspirations for the map were the opening part of Vanguard's MAP09 and "that bit in Going Down where you blow up a water cooler and a load of imps spill out of the walls."

Trivia

 * This map was originally made for a Haste inspired set of maps, but later reworked to fit into MAP01 of Hardfest.